New UC Berkeley map shows where gentrification hits the hardest

A new map charting urban displacement in Northern California demonstrates just how dire the housing crisis looks throughout the region.

UC Berkeley's Urban Displacement Project, in collaboration with the San Francisco Mayor's Office, charted the rate of gentrification and exclusion in 13 Northern California counties using public data from 2015. The impacts of these displacement factors reach as far as Sacramento and Stockton, though Oakland gentrified at the fastest rate of all the surveyed communities.

"These maps confirm what many of us already know: Gentrification and displacement continue to be a crisis, and the crisis is touching the entire megaregion," said Miriam Zuk, the director of the program, in a press release.

More than 60 percent of low-income households in the 13-county region were found to be at risk of displacement or already experiencing it, Zuk said, which amounts to about 900,000 households.

Houses are seen on Cesar Chavez and 26th Streets, in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016.

Houses are seen on Cesar Chavez and 26th Streets, in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016.

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

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Houses are seen on Cesar Chavez and 26th Streets, in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016.

Houses are seen on Cesar Chavez and 26th Streets, in San Francisco on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016.

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle

New UC Berkeley map shows where gentrification hits the hardest

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Compared to maps the project released in 2015, which employed data from 2013, the rate of gentrification and displacement accelerated the fastest in Oakland, while exclusion advanced most quickly in San Francisco.

According to the researchers, "Exclusionary displacement occurs when rents are so expensive that low-income people are excluded from moving in."

This exclusion phenomenon appears to be more prevalent than gentrification in the Bay Area, the researchers said.

Displacement extends outside the Bay Area, in regions like Sacramento, which has long been a haven for affordable housing.